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DeSantis's office says he will boycott NBC, MSNBC over Andrea Mitchell question on Black history

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will boycott media appearances on NBC News and MSNBC shows, according to his press team, until one of the network’s star reporters apologizes for a question she posed about the governor’s education policies.

“There will be no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates until and at least Andrea Mitchell corrects the blatant lie she made about the governor,” DeSantis’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said in an email to the network that he posted on Twitter.

The “lie” that the DeSantis camp is protesting is a question Mitchell put to Vice President Harris last week, in which she asked: “What does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about Black history and the Black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?” 

Mitchell later said her questioning was “imprecise” but did not explicitly apologize. The Hill has reached out to NBC for further comment.

Griffin said NBC and its affiliates must “display a consistent track record of truthful reporting” before DeSantis, who has had an often acrimonious relationship with the mainstream media, agrees to future appearances.

Last year, DeSantis signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which prohibited the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Florida schools, as well as lessons about historical topics in ways that would make someone feel personally responsible for a past wrong based on their own race, sex or national origin.

Critics say the measure unfairly limits the teaching of subjects such as the Civil War and the Jim Crow era.

DeSantis garnered further outrage from Democrats and activists after his administration earlier this year rejected the new Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course launched by the College Board, criticizing the course as lacking “educational value.”

The DeSantis administration objected to topics including Black queer studies, intersectionality, the reparations movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black feminist literary thought and the Black struggle in the 21st century.

The College Board later released changes to the AP course that aligned with many of DeSantis’s criticisms, but claimed that the changes were not due to the governor’s influence. DeSantis has yet to say if the state will accept the course as amended.

The changes have also sparked an intense backlash to the College Board itself from advocates and educators.

—Updated at 4:39 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Buttigieg calls on Trump to back reversing deregulation in wake of train derailment

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday called on former President Trump to support the Biden administration in reversing Trump-era deregulations in the wake of the derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in Ohio.

“One thing he can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So, if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he can come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction,” Buttigieg said during a visit to East Palestine.

The White House has blamed Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration for lax railway and environmental regulations in the aftermath of the derailment. The White House has pointed to a 2021 letter from Republican senators to the Federal Railroad Administration, urging the agency to expand the use of automated track inspection, and pointed to a Republican Study Committee proposal to cut to government funding to address chemical spills.

Additionally, Politico reported that the Trump administration rolled back several safety measures for railways, including regular safety audits and an Obama-era rule that required faster brakes on trains carrying flammable materials.

“We’re not afraid to own our policies when it comes to raising the bar on regulation,” Buttigieg said on Thursday.

He further targeted Trump, saying the former president should back the Biden administration’s policies around the situation if he thinks the events in Ohio are something all Americans should care about. 

“I’ve got to think that him indicating that this is something that everybody, no matter how much you disagree on politics and presidential campaigns, can get behind — higher fines, tougher regulations on safety, Congress untying our hands on breaking rules, all the other things that go with that — that would be a nice thing for him to do,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg went to East Palestine a day after former President Trump visited the town and as the Biden administration has faced criticism for not heading to eastern Ohio sooner. Trump, ahead of his visit, suggested that the town had been abandoned by the Biden administration.

The White House has not yet said if President Biden, who just returned from a trip to Ukraine and Poland, will visit.

The Transportation Department has defended the timing of the trip, saying it aligns with when the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its initial findings from their investigators on the ground.

The preliminary report tentatively corroborated reports that a wheel bearing severely overheated ahead of the accident. NTSB said investigators have examined the first car to derail, the 23rd overall, as well as local surveillance footage, which seemingly shows a wheel bearing in late-stage overheat failure immediately ahead of the accident.

Source: TEST FEED1

5 questions remaining on East Palestine derailment after preliminary NTSB report

The National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) issued its first preliminary report Thursday on the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

While the report seemingly faults an overheated bearing for the derailment, the NTSB investigation is ongoing, and a number of questions remain.

Here are five remaining questions about the train derailment:

1. Did the tank car design contribute?

In the preliminary report, the NTSB said it has decontaminated the train cars that contained hazardous material, which included vinyl chloride. Exposure to the substance, which is used for production of plastics, has been linked to higher rates of liver and lung cancer.

NTSB officials said they have removed and examined the top fittings from the cars that contained the substance, and those fittings will be sent to Texas for further testing.

2. What was the role of rail regulations or lack thereof?

Public safety advocates have frequently pointed to the Trump administration’s delay of a 2015 rule, vocally opposed by railroad companies, that would require the use of more modern electronically-controlled pneumatic brakes.

Although the Transportation Department has said the rule would not have prevented the East Palestine disaster, both Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and President Biden have pointed the finger at the railroad lobby for deregulation and its potential role in the accident.

3. Are there still environmental hazards?

The NTSB noted in its report that it is not involved in “air monitoring, testing of water quality, environmental remediation, or evacuation orders” relating to the disaster. Much of this falls under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has taken over the response. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said last week that the agency will require Norfolk Southern, which operates the railroad, to assume financial responsibility for all cleanup efforts.

While the EPA and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) have said water in the area tested as safe to drink, they recommended drinking bottled water, and state officials have reported at least 3,500 fish have died in surrounding waterways.

4. Was the controlled burn the right move?

DeWine ordered an evacuation of the area days after the derailment. Shortly after and concerned about a potential explosion due to the presence of flammable compounds, first responders conducted a controlled burn. In its preliminary report, the NTSB listed “venting and burning of the vinyl chloride” as an ongoing subject of investigation. A number of lawsuits have been filed in the meantime alleging the controlled burn exacerbated hazards, including a complaint by local injury firm Morgan & Morgan claiming it has contributed to locals’ health problems.

5. How long will it take to determine the exact danger?

Many of the potential risks associated with environmental disasters — from cancer to developmental issues — can take months or years to become apparent and will require ongoing investigations by both the NTSB and the EPA.

Regan and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) have urged residents to continue testing their homes’ air quality, and Brown has also said he is working to ensure Norfolk Southern does not manipulate residents into waiving their right to sue.

Another unknown is any possible risk to the surrounding areas, not just other parts of Ohio but the other side of the state line as well. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) told NPR this week that Norfolk Southern’s response has “given the middle finger to the good people of Pennsylvania and Ohio” and that testing of western Pennsylvania water is ongoing as well. “We’ve seen no concerning readings yet, but we’re going to continue to test for months and months and months, if not years,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

NTSB board releases initial report on East Palestine derailment

The National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) on Thursday issued its preliminary report on the derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month, tentatively corroborating reports that a wheel bearing severely overheated ahead of the accident.

In its preliminary report, NTSB said investigators have examined the first car to derail, the 23rd overall, as well as local surveillance cameras and signal data. A nearby residence’s surveillance footage seemingly shows a wheel bearing in late-stage overheat failure immediately ahead of the accident, according to the preliminary report.

At the time of the accident, the report states, the train had passed through several hot bearing detectors (HBDs), which repeatedly tested as hotter than average and, by the third HBD, was 253 degrees above average, which meets Norfolk Southern’s criteria for “critical.” The train applied brakes at that point, but was unable to stop, according to the preliminary report.

The train, operated by Norfolk Southern Railway, derailed on Feb. 3. The 38 derailed cars included several cars containing vinyl chloride, a hazardous substance used in the production of plastics. Federal and state officials have both said drinking water in the area is safe, but both Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan have recommended residents drink bottled water.

NTSB investigators have taken possession of the wheel bearing in question as well as the affected wheel mechanism, according to the preliminary report. The investigation is ongoing and will further examine the design of the vinyl chloride tank cars and the derailment damage. It will also analyze the immediate response, in which first responders burned the five vinyl chloride tank cars to prevent a possible explosion.

In the report, NTSB emphasizes that potential environmental hazards are the purview of the EPA, which announced earlier this week that it would take over the cleanup effort and require Norfolk Southern to assume responsibility.

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy says he 'promised' to release Jan. 6 tapes

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calf.) defended his decision to grant Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to tens of thousand of hours of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by saying he had “promised” to release the video.

“I promised,” McCarthy told The New York Times on Wednesday. “I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment.”

A Wednesday fundraising email blast from McCarthy’s campaign with the subject line “Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 footage” relayed the same message.

“I promised I would give you the truth regarding January 6th, and today I am delivering,” said the email signed from McCarthy.

According to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who opposed McCarthy on more than a dozen ballots in drawn-out Speaker election battle in January, wider release of Jan. 6 footage was part of an agreement McCarthy struck with his detractors in order to secure the gavel.

“Kevin McCarthy told us he’s going to get the evidence out in front of the American people, and that means releasing the 14,000 hours of tapes that have been hidden, that I think would give more full context of that day,” Gaetz said on the Charlie Kirk Show in January. “Part of this deal is a concession that we are going to get the truth out in front of the American people.”

Carlson himself also suggested that McCarthy release all of the Jan. 6 footage as opposition from 20 hardline conservatives forced him into a drawn-out floor battle.

“If Kevin McCarthy wants to be the speaker, he is going to have to do things he would never do otherwise,” Carlson said on his Jan. 3 show. “Release the January 6 files. Not some of the January 6 files and video, all of it. And not just some phony committee that will hide them, that in fact is designed to hide them from the public, but put them online. Release them to the public directly so the rest of us can finally know what actually happened on January 6, 2021.”

Democrats have slammed McCarthy for releasing the security footage, expressing worries about how it will impact Capitol security.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday that McCarthy “is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11,” warning that its public release could “allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also called it an “egregious security breach.”

The choice of granting access to Carlson has added to greater outrage. Carlson’s 2021 “Patriot Purge” documentary series that argued the riot was used as pretext for political persecution of Trump supporters, and included speculation that the riot was a “false flag” or a “honeypot” to trap rally attendees.

“Giving someone as disingenuous as Tucker Carlson exclusive access to this type of sensitive information is a grave mistake by Speaker McCarthy that will only embolden supporters of the Big Lie and weaken faith in our democracy,” Schumer said in his letter.

Source: TEST FEED1

Shapiro says he would dismiss any pressure to ask Fetterman to resign

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said he would dismiss any calls to ask Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) to resign, after the first-term senator checked himself into the hospital to receive treatment for clinical depression.

“If I did, I would dismiss it immediately,” Shapiro said in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, after saying he had not received any pressure from Democrats to urge Fetterman to resign.

Fetterman, the former lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last week. Fetterman’s office said his issues with depression, which he has battled throughout his life, had become more severe. 

Fetterman has had other highly documented health issues, notably suffering a stroke during his campaign and also going to the hospital after he felt light-headed earlier this month.

Since his stroke, he has had to rely on closed captioning to interact with other lawmakers due to auditory processing issues. 

The announcement that Fetterman was receiving treatment for clinical depression, which people close to him say will last “a few weeks,” was met with an outpouring of support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Shapiro told the Inquirer that Fetterman is going to “come back stronger than ever.”

“He’s going to get the help that he needs … and do a great job for the people of Pennsylvania as their senator for a long time,” Shapiro said.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Political focus on Ohio derailment intensifies

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

First came 11 train cars filled with hazardous chemicals that derailed along with 27 other cars because of a suspected wheel bearing failure. More than two weeks later, the community of East Palestine, Ohio, unnerved by the threat of poisons in its air and water, wants results from investigations, legal action and improved problem-solving by federal and state officials.

The 38 cars that derailed 17 days ago included cargo of vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene — all toxic to humans and the environment. The train derailment contaminated at least 15,000 pounds of soil and 1.1 million gallons of water, according to freight rail carrier Norfolk Southern.

A crisis that began on Feb. 6 has escalated beyond the town and the office of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to engulf Norfolk Southern and the freight rail industry. Lawmakers continue to criticize President Biden and his Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

The National Transportation Safety Board today in Washington will release a preliminary report on the derailment (WKBN). Biden, while traveling in Warsaw on Tuesday night, released a statement holding Norfolk Southern responsible while again pledging federal assistance to East Palestine.

The White House said the president on Tuesday from Europe phoned Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), DeWine, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio). 

▪ The Hill: The freight rail industry’s lobbying against stronger safety standards is under scrutiny.

▪ Pro Publica: A Norfolk Southern policy lets a company monitoring team order crews to ignore safety. 

Leaping into the fray, former President Trump, who won Ohio by 8 points in 2020, traveled to the accident area on Wednesday as he vies for the GOP nomination in 2024.

“You are not forgotten,” he told a small group of local leaders, first responders and the media at the local fire station in Little Beaver Creek, Ohio, while pledging to donate bottles of cleaning supplies and pallets of bottled water, which he said were collected through organizations that carry his name (WKBN).

Trump accused the Biden administration of “indifference and betrayal” (The Hill), adding “he had nothing to do with it” when asked about his former administration’s decision to ease rail safety requirements (Yahoo News and Ohio Public Broadcasting). 

Trump was joined by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Mayor Trent Conaway of East Palestine, whose office is formally nonpartisan. The mayor on Monday told Fox News that Biden’s trip to Ukraine was a “slap in the face” because the president did not come to Ohio (WKYC). “He can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us, and I’m furious,” he said.

EPA is now in charge of the environmental investigation in East Palestine (The Washington Post). The Federal Emergency Management Agency and a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also have been dispatched to the state.

Buttigieg, who earlier this week said he’d visit the train derailment site when the time was right, will arrive today (The Hill). Criticism of the secretary’s initial response has been bipartisan (Bloomberg News) and he conceded “lesson learned” during a Tuesday interview with CBS News from Washington.

“I was focused on just making sure that our folks on the ground were all set, but could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident, and that’s a lesson learned for me,” the secretary said.

Buttigieg on Tuesday announced a package of reforms, two days after he told Norfolk Southern to fulfill its promises to clean up the rail wreckage in East Palestine and help the town recover. He said his department holds the railroad accountable for any safety violations that contributed to the derailment.

“While ensuring the safety of those impacted by this crash is the immediate priority, we also have to recognize that this represents an important moment to redouble our efforts to make this far less likely to happen again in the future,” Buttigieg said (PBS NewsHour).

Related Articles

▪ The New York Times: Trump visits Ohio seeking to draw contrast with Biden. 

▪ The Columbus Dispatch: White House blames Trump and Republicans over East Palestine, Ohio spill.

▪ Politico: Trump’s visit gives the Biden administration breathing room.

▪ CNN: The Pentagon released a fighter pilot’s selfie from the cockpit above the Chinese spy balloon as it hovered over the “central continental United States” on Feb. 3.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Biden told ABC News’s David Muir Wednesday that it was a “big mistake” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to temporarily suspend his country’s participation in the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries. The president was in Warsaw for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and leaders of the so-called Bucharest Nine group of eastern European nations (NBC News).

“It’s a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible. But I don’t read into that that he’s thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that,” Biden said in the interview, adding he was “not sure what else he [Putin] was able to say in his speech at the moment, but I think it’s a mistake and I’m confident we’ll be able to work it out.”

Putin declared on Tuesday that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, first signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, which implements caps on the number of nuclear weapons deployed by each country and inspections of nuclear sites. He said support by the U.S. and other NATO allies for Ukraine was the reason for the suspension.

The Russian leader met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Wednesday; a meeting between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected by April. Word of Xi’s visit comes as Washington has said China is considering providing weapons for Russia in Ukraine, which would threaten to escalate the conflict into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance on the other (Reuters).

▪ The Wall Street Journal: U.S. considers release of intelligence on China’s potential arms transfer to Russia.

▪ Reuters: Biden, Putin display their alliances with Ukraine war backdrop.

The first year of the Russia-Ukraine war has been defined by the resilience of Kyiv’s forces and Moscow’s diminished military power. But as The Hill’s Brad Dress reports, the course of the second year will depend largely on forces outside of either country. Ukraine’s success in routing Russian forces hinges largely on how quickly the U.S. and Europe supply long-range missiles, tanks and potentially jets, while Russia’s hope for retaking momentum depends on Western unity disintegrating.  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and United Nations Security General Antonio Guterres will discuss ongoing support for Ukraine as the U.N. Security Council meets this week amid the one-year mark of Russia’s invasion.

Blinken, while at the Security Council meeting in New York today and Friday, “will underscore U.S. commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and call upon the international community to endorse UN actions that will help secure a just and durable peace in Ukraine,” according to the State Department (Yahoo News).

The Hill: The Russia-Ukraine war has shattered the digital wall that often separated the government’s cyber experts from the private sector, forcing a new level of transparency on potential threats and engagement on geopolitical crises.

➤ POLITICS 

Biden’s closest advisers have spent months preparing for him to formally announce his reelection campaign, but with the president still not ready to take the leap, some doubt is creeping into conversations around 2024. As Politico reports, “while the belief among nearly everyone in Biden’s orbit is that he’ll ultimately give the all-clear, his indecision has resulted in an awkward deep-freeze across the party — in which some potential presidential aspirants and scores of major donors are strategizing and even developing a Plan B while trying to remain respectful and publicly supportive of the 80-year-old president.”

2024: Self-professed “woke-fighting” author and multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy entered the Republican presidential race Tuesday. Ramaswamy opposes corporate efforts to advance political, social and environmental causes (The New York Times).

In the Senate, Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on Wednesday announced he’s running for Senate reelection. Faced with a tough election map next year, Democrats expressed relief (The Hill).

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) touched a nerve across the political spectrum this week with her call for a “national divorce” that echoed the nation’s nasty history surrounding secessionism and gave Republicans headaches during an otherwise sleepy time in Washington. The Hill’s Al Weaver reports that while Greene is known for incendiary rhetoric sure to provoke Democrats and Republicans alike, this instance has gone a step further, as any comments remotely tied to secession and the Civil War conjures up memories of one of the darkest periods in American history. Greene made similar statements in late 2021. What has changed is her stature. She’s a key ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, making her less of an outcast with some in the GOP. 

“Having an extremist in Congress is not new. Having someone willing to say insane and incendiary things [is] not really new,” saidBrian Rosenwald, a political historian at the University of Pennsylvania. “What I think is new… is that here’s someone saying these things and doing these things and being embraced by leadership.” 

▪ Business Insider: Greene defends her call to split up the U.S. by saying the country is moving towards another civil war: “We have to do something about it.”

▪ CBS News: Possible targets in Fulton County investigation of Trump, allies may try to quash charges.

▪ The New York Times: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump subpoenaed in the Justice Department’s Jan. 6, 2021, investigation.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, the selection of Kristina Karamo, a far-right election denier to lead the state GOP is underscoring divisions within the party as Republican leaders hope to unify heading into 2024, writes The Hill’s Amee LaTour.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ MORE ADMINISTRATION

Housing: In a bid to boost affordability while median home prices remain near record highs, the Biden administration will trim costs under a mortgage program for first-time and lower-income buyers, the White House announced Wednesday. The Federal Housing Administration will reduce the fee borrowers pay to have their mortgages insured by the agency by about $800 a year on a typical loan, or 0.3 percentage point. Officials expect the fee reduction to benefit roughly 850,000 home buyers and homeowners in 2023 (The Wall Street Journal and National Mortgage Professional). 

▪ Fortune: Housing market once again braces for higher mortgage rates — here’s where eight experts see rates going this year.

▪ CNBC: U.S. home sales post 12th straight monthly decline; house price inflation cools.

▪ Axios: Mortgage applications plummet as rates jump.

Immigration: As the White House gears up for the end of one Trump-era border policy this spring, it wants to resurrect a version of another highly criticized immigration program put in place under the previous administration — which would mark the White House’s most restrictive border control measure to date.

On Tuesday, the Homeland Security and Justice departments announced a proposed rule that will ban some migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they cross the border illegally, or fail to first apply for safe harbor in another country. Following a 30-day public comment period, the rule will be implemented when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends in May. Within minutes of its posting, the administration faced a flood of backlash from immigrant advocates and Democrats, as well as threats of lawsuits (Politico).

Former Biden White House official Andrea Flores, now the chief counsel for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the administration for resurrecting a policy that “normalizes the white nationalist belief that asylum seekers from certain countries are less deserving of humanitarian protections.”

First lady Jill Biden met with Namibian President Hage Geingob on Wednesday to kick off a five-day, two-country visit to Africa. Her focus in Namibia is on the “role of young people in continuing to shape their democracy and advance health cooperation,” senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Former Vice President Al Gore in 1996 was the last senior most official representing the White House and U.S. government to visit Namibia (The Hill).

“We wanted to come because this is a young democracy and we want to support democracies around the world,” the first lady said ahead of the meeting.

🍽️ West Wing eats: The White House Mess, considered indispensable as an insider’s perk, will reopen for in-person dining on March 6 after a pause during the pandemic (Axios).

OPINION

■ All Americans deserve clean air and water — Ohio has been denied that, by Benji Backer, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3ZwPkeD

■ Microsoft is sacrificing its ethical principles to win the AI race, by Reid Blackman, guest essayist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3kseXht

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will hold a pro forma session on Friday at 11 a.m. House Judiciary Committee Republican members today will hold a field hearing in Yuma, Ariz., related to immigration policy and border security. 

The Senate meets in a pro forma session at 9:30 a.m. 

The president is at the White House where he will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:30 a.m.

The vice president is in Washington and has no public events.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Bengaluru, India, to participate in a Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors. The secretary this morning met with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Yellen in the afternoon takes questions from the news media. In the evening, she is scheduled to meet with Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani.

The secretary of State is traveling to New York City to participate in a U.N. Security Council two-day ministerial meeting focused on Ukraine at the one-year mark following Russia’s illegal invasion. Blinken will meet with the U.N. Secretary General. Blinken will also speak to The Atlantic Live at 11 a.m. ET about Ukraine (C-SPAN coverage and information HERE).

The first lady is in Namibia and Kenya through Sunday.

Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on claims for unemployment benefits filed in the week ending Feb. 18. The Bureau of Economic Analysis at 8:30 a.m. will report gross domestic product during the fourth quarter and for the entirety of 2022.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will travel to Chicago to speak at a political finance event at 12:30 p.m. CT at the Westin Chicago River North.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ AIR TRAVEL & WEATHER

More than 1,700 flights were canceled in the United States on Wednesday because of a major winter storm that battered the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest with high winds and heavy snow (CNN). The National Weather Service said up to 2 feet of snow and winds of up to 60 miles an hour were expected in some spots during Wednesday and into today (CNN and Reuters). 

The winter weather grounded air travel, forced hundreds of schools to close and made road travel difficult — if not impossible — in some areas. More than 50 million Americans were under winter weather advisories on Wednesday as the storm moved across a wide swath of the western and northern United States and into the East. 

The storm has left drivers trapped in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in Southern California in decades — and the worst won’t be over for several days (CBS News and NPR).

With snow expected to fall at a rate of an inch per hour and winds gusting over 30 mph, “it will be challenging for our snow plows, so imagine what it will be like for the average driver,” Anne Meyer, Minnesota Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said ahead of the worst of the storm. “This might be one night Mother Nature wins” (Star Tribune)

The weather also presents a big test for Southwest Airlines because it is still recovering from criticism after it canceled more than 16,700 flights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 31.  The company’s CEO Andrew Watterson apologized in front of a Senate panel earlier this month for the holiday meltdown, which left thousands of people stranded.

“Let me be clear: we messed up. In hindsight, we didn’t have enough winter operational resilience,” Watterson said in written testimony ahead of the hearing (Barron’s).

➤ HEALTH & PANDEMIC

Have you ever gotten the hiccups, and fruitlessly tried everything to make them stop? You’re in luck, because The Atlantic has the solution, and it’s as free as the air you breathe. When Luc Morris, a surgeon at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center specializing in tumors of the head and neck, was a medical student, he wrote a letter to the editor of a specialist medical journal in which he laid out a potential treatment for “idiopathic persistent singultus,” a.k.a. the hiccups. The name he gave to the new technique was “supra-supramaximal inspiration,” and it boils down to a simple breathing exercise. 

Exhale completely, then inhale a deep breath. Wait 10 seconds, then — without exhaling —  inhale a little more. Wait another five seconds, then top up the breath again. Finally, exhale. 

▪ Time magazine: COVID-19 rebound can happen even without Paxlovid.

▪ USA Today: Idaho bill would criminalize giving mRNA vaccines – the tech used in popular COVID-19 vaccines.

▪ WTOP: Restaurants, jobs asked for proof of COVID-19 vaccine. So did it increase D.C.’s vaccine rates?

The new scientific review on masks and COVID-19 isn’t what you think, Vox reports. A meta-analysis seeks to be the last word on the effectiveness of masks, but finding answers in science isn’t that easy.

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov. 

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,118,763. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,838 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … 🎭 It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, we’re eager for some smart guesses about carnival celebrations around the world.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

By what decade was Mardi Gras celebrated regularly in New Orleans?

1. The 1900s
2. The 1870s
3. The 1730s
4. The 1790s

Schools of which kind of dance launch elaborate floats and choreographed routines during Brazil’s annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro?

1. Tango
2. Samba
3. Rumba
4. Paso Doble

Which city is famous for its masked carnival that ends on Shrove Tuesday?

1. Stockholm
2. Venice
3. Paris
4. Rome

To celebrate Fat Tuesday, people across Great Britain eat what food?

1. Donuts
2. Crumpets
3. Pie
4. Pancakes

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How the Russia-Ukraine war has changed cyberspace

The Russia-Ukraine war has shattered the digital wall that often separated the government’s cyber experts from the private sector, forcing a new level of transparency on potential threats and engagement on geopolitical crises. 

“I think the war in Ukraine has acted as a forcing function for governments, particularly the U.S., to reconsider how they communicate and declassify cyber threat information with the private sector,” said Jason Blessing, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. 

It’s no secret that government agencies tend to move slower than private actors when it comes to communicating and sharing threat information, so it makes sense to join forces, he added.  

“I think you’re seeing the needle move in the right direction in terms of information sharing,” he added. 

Nathaniel Fick, the head of the cyber bureau at the State Department, recently said that the war has made concrete changes to how the U.S. government and the private sector work together to counter cyberattacks. 

“When I was a cybersecurity CEO, public-private partnership was a feel-good buzz term,” Fick said. “It generally meant I shared my data with the government, the government classified it, and I got nothing back.”

“That is emphatically no longer the case,” he added.

Experts said the U.S. government is now more willing to declassify certain information and share it with the private sector as they come to realize the benefits of early engagement. 

And the war has also pushed the U.S. military to rethink how they can better integrate cyber into conventional military operations, while public-private collaboration has also helped Ukraine counter Russian cyberattacks. 

“In Ukraine … Microsoft and others were able to push updates at scale in near real time based on collaboration with the U.S. intelligence community that allowed them to blunt these attacks,” Fick said.

Last year, Microsoft said it had thwarted Russian cyberattacks targeting Ukraine and organizations in the U.S. and the European Union. The tech company said the attacks were launched by a Russian hacking group tied to Russia’s military intelligence service.

Josephine Wolff, an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Tufts University Fletcher School, said since the war started, she has seen a much more urgent approach to publicly sharing information on emerging threats, how to confront them, and what disruptive steps the government and the private sector are taking.

Leading up to and following the invasion of Ukraine, U.S. officials sent out several alerts warning companies, especially those in critical sectors, to prepare for potential Russian cyberattacks by strengthening their cyber defenses.

“I think that’s where we’ve seen kind of the most progress and the most change,” Wolff said. 

On the private sector side, experts say that companies large and small are more aware of the cyber risks stemming from the war and are proactively taking steps to fix their vulnerabilities and secure their networks. 

Companies also recognize that they can also be targets of state-sponsored cyberattacks stemming from geopolitical disputes, and can no longer sit on the sidelines.  

“I think you’re seeing more and more that firms cannot take a backseat to what’s happening politically,” Blessing said.  

In fact, executives and board members of various companies are now asking how the war could impact their business operations in cyberspace, said James Turgal, vice president of cyber consultancy Optiv. 

“The questions I’m getting are ‘what are the geopolitical impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, specifically, the cyber aspects?,’” Turgal said.  

“‘How should we, as board of directors, now think about that?,’” he said, adding that these are conversations he’s never had with board members prior to the war.  

“[The war] truly has changed how boards are thinking about cyber,” he continued. 

Cyber war crimes?

The war has also sparked a global debate on whether certain Russian cyberattacks could consitute war crimes. 

Earlier this year, Ukrainian officials requested that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague investigate whether destructive Russian cyberattacks could fall under war crimes. 

In January, Ukraine’s chief digital transformation officer, Victor Zhora, told Politico that his country is gathering evidence of cyberattacks tied to military operations and are sharing information with the ICC in the hopes of potentially charging Russia for those crimes. 

Zhora argued that since Russia used cyberattacks to support its kinetic military operations that targeted Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and civilians, the digital attacks should also be considered as war crimes against Ukrainian citizens.

Those efforts could be a game-changer in this space as cyberattacks are currently not listed as a form of war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Declining Russia; rising China

Moving forward, experts said to expect the U.S. to shift its focus on China, as it seems that Russia’s cyber capabilities have not kept up with the West. 

At the onset of the war, many experts in the industry, including lawmakers and intelligence officials, predicted that Russian forces would launch destructive cyberattacks, but that didn’t materialize as many expected.

“What I would say is if Russia’s cyber capabilities cannot overcome the combined defensive efforts of the United States and Ukraine, then their capabilities have gone down,” Wolff said. 

While China is emerging as the main adversary in cyberspace, it is also watching Russia’s efforts around Ukraine and applying it to its own situation with Taiwan, said Turgal. 

“The Chinese are watching how the Russians are actually utilizing the different types of [cyber] techniques,” Turgal said.  

Last year, Taiwan’s presidential office and defense ministry were hit with cyberattacks amidst then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to the island, adding to the rising tensions over the island.  

Although it is still unclear who launched the cyberattacks against Taiwan, many have speculated that China was probably behind it as retaliation for Pelosi’s visit. 

“I think the conversation does not just remain about Russia-Ukraine, I think the conversation evolves into China-Taiwan,” Turgal said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Greene stirs up political storm with 'national divorce' comments

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) touched a nerve across the political spectrum this week with her call for a “national divorce” that echoed the nation’s history surrounding secessionism. 

Greene’s call for the U.S. to be split into two nations of red and blue states has infuriated members of both parties, while giving Republicans an unwanted headache. While Greene is known for incendiary rhetoric sure to provoke Democrats and Republicans alike, her words take on new importance now that she is a key ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. She also has her eyes on a possible vice presidential bid on a ticket led by former President Trump. 

“That is the biggest change. … There have absolutely always been gadflies in both parties who were extremists who were kind of going places that no one was comfortable with,” Brian Rosenwald, a political historian at the University of Pennsylvania, said. “Having an extremist in Congress is not new. Having someone willing to say insane and incendiary things [is] not really new. What I think is new … is that here’s someone saying these things and doing these things and being embraced by leadership.”

Greene made similar statements in late 2021, and her latest pitch to divide the nation by political ideology came on President’s Day. She followed it up on Tuesday with an extensive Twitter thread expanding on her reasoning.

Others in her party have been notably silent on the issue.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) labeled the idea “evil,” and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) tweeted that “Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie.”

But neither House GOP leadership nor rank-and-file Republicans in the lower chamber have responded.

Multiple GOP strategists told The Hill that some on the right are staying quiet because they believe Greene’s comments were meant to get a reaction — and help her fundraise.

“She wants you to cover it. She wants the MSNBC love so she can raise money off it. She wants people talking about it,” one GOP operative told The Hill. 

A second GOP strategist echoed that thought, adding her comment doesn’t make much sense no matter how you slice it given her home state.

“Does she forget her state is kind of blue and has two Democratic senators?” a GOP operative involved in House races said. “I think it’s a lot of people just writing it off and being like ‘oh this is the shit she says.’”

“Sounds like wishful thinking,” the operative said. “She’s just trying to stir the pot a bit, and I’m sure she’ll raise some money on it.”

But Rosenwald says those dismissing Greene’s comments should do so at their own peril, especially in a party that has in recent years seen outsiders rise up and become prominent parts of the party apparatus.

“This is the problem with how things get normalized. … Part of the problem the Republican Party has had for probably 40-plus years is they roll their eyes at the fringe of the party,” Rosenwald said. “These are the people who are getting more and more popular with their base and these are the people that are getting the attention and sort of setting the agenda.” 

Democrats have pounced on Greene’s comments, eager to tie her to McCarthy and the greater GOP.

“Kevin McCarthy’s shameful silence on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s divisive calls for secession of states sends a dangerous message to conspiracy theorists and anarchists,” Tommy Garcia, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman, said in a statement. “Apparently, upholding and defending the Constitution is merely a suggestion to the House Republican party.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison tweeted, “Kev, Call your caucus…”

McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

As the 2024 cycle kicks into gear, the larger concern for Republicans is that Democrats can use Greene’s comments in advertisements to pan the entire party.

Distancing themselves from Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) call to sunset all federal legislation after five years didn’t protect other Republicans from Democratic attacks that the GOP was trying to cut Social Security and Medicare.

“It’s easy to see Democrats latching onto some of her comments and using it as a way to define the rest of the Republican Party,” a third GOP operative told The Hill. “Democrats will be anxious to use a lot of this stuff to define us as the party that has lost our way and not focused on issues that have a real chance of being put into action.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Railroad pushback to safety regulations scrutinized amid East Palestine disaster 

The freight rail industry’s lobbying efforts to oppose stronger safety standards are under intense scrutiny following the devastating Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.  

Officials are still investigating the cause of the Feb. 3 accident, in which 11 rail cars spilled hazardous chemicals that are being intentionally burned to avoid a massive explosion, prompting fears from area residents about exposure to toxic substances.  

But lawmakers, federal officials and union leaders are already placing the blame on rail companies, pointing to the industry’s decades-long opposition to stricter safety regulations. 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg this week called for a slew of new railroad rules, including more stringent braking requirements and larger fines for railroads that violate safety regulations.

He called on Norfolk Southern to support new rail safety rules instead of mobilizing against them. 

“Rather than support these efforts to improve rail safety, Norfolk Southern and other rail companies spent millions of dollars in the courts and lobbying members of Congress to oppose common-sense safety regulations, stopping some entirely and reducing the scope of others,” Buttigieg wrote in a letter to Norfolk Southern. 

“That must change,” he added.

Railroads spent big to block safety regulations

Railroads are an influential force in Congress and state legislatures, using their lobbying power to kill several regulatory proposals aimed at boosting safety. 

The four largest U.S. railroads and their trade association together spent over $480 million on federal lobbying over the last two decades, according to data from nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets. Norfolk Southern actually spent the least of the top railroads, shelling out $69 million over that period. 

“Rail companies have spent millions of dollars to oppose common-sense safety regulations. And it’s worked. This is more than a train derailment or a toxic waste spill — it’s years of opposition to safety measures coming home to roost,” President Joe Biden tweeted Tuesday. 

Norfolk Southern and other railroads successfully lobbied Republicans in Congress to pass a measure delaying the implementation of a 2015 Obama administration rule that would have required more trains to be equipped with electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.

Regulators say those modern systems would have boosted train safety and braking performance. 

The Trump administration rescinded the rule in 2018, echoing the industry’s concerns that the costs to implement ECP brakes outweighed the benefits. An Associated Press report found that the Trump administration omitted up to $117 million in future damages from train derailments in its analysis.

Railroads object to new safety regulations

Railroads are lobbying against a proposed federal rule to mandate two-person crews, arguing that it’s unnecessary and costly.

Thousands of rail workers have submitted comments in support of the rule, arguing that accidents are more likely when they work solo.  

“At what point does the greed of Wall Street outweigh the safety of the average citizen? A minimum of 2 person crews needs to be in place for the foreseeable future to protect the environment, our water supply, and life,” Colorado-based conductor Charles Noonan wrote in a comment to regulators, noting that trains carry massive amounts of hazardous materials through populated areas. 

In 2021, Norfolk Southern defeated a bipartisan bill in Ohio that would have mandated two-person crews, arguing that the legislation would create legal issues by conflicting with federal law.

The company donated $98,000 to Ohio candidates over the last six years, according to an analysis from ABC 6 On Your Side. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) tweeted that Norfolk Southern should invest its lobbying budget toward supporting the reinstatement of “essential rail safety rules,” a move that’s highly unlikely to happen. 

Railroads are currently lobbying against Iowa legislation to limit the maximum train length to 1.6 miles, roughly half the length of some freight trains operating today.

There are no federal regulations on train length, despite outcry from workers who say that longer trains lead to more dangerous accidents. 

Buttigieg is calling on Congress to enact other reforms that will likely draw opposition from railroads. 

He wants lawmakers to increase fines from the current maximum of roughly $225,000 — which Buttigieg called a “rounding error” for the top carriers — and implement stronger laws governing ECP brakes and trains carrying hazardous materials.

Would stronger rules have stopped the crash?

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) planned to release a preliminary report on the incident Thursday. Surveillance footage appeared to show a wheel bearing catching fire shortly before the derailment.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy noted that the Obama administration’s ECP brake rule would not have prevented the crash, as it only applied to trains carrying large quantities of highly-flammable liquids.

The threshold for that rule was at least 20 train cars of highly flammable liquid, but Norfolk Southern train was only carrying three cars of flammable gas. 

“This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn’t have had ECP brakes,” Homendy said in a tweet. 

Still, union officials and workers say that faltering maintenance driven by the railroad industry’s shift toward precision scheduled railroading (PSR) — which involves using technology to move more cargo with fewer trains and workers — may have caused the failure. 

Railroads have slashed their workforce by 30% since 2017

Railroads cut down on their workforce by around 30 percent over the last six years in an effort to boost profits and attract investors.

It’s worked financial wonders for Norfolk Southern, which made a record $4.8-billion profit last year and shelled out $3.4 billion on stock buybacks. But it has also angered rail workers, who complain about long hours and unpredictable schedules. 

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen National President Eddie Hall backed Buttigieg’s proposed rail reforms, but lamented that the Transportation Secretary didn’t mention PSR, which unions say has led to a reduction in thorough inspections of rail cars. 

“Railroads largely self-regulate and PSR has led to irresponsible practices at the cost of safety,” Hall said in a statement. “It needs to be eliminated or reformed.”

While Norfolk Southern has committed to working with regulators to make the railroad safer, it hasn’t committed to any specific reforms. 

“I’m looking forward to having discussions with our regulators and elected officials on how we can make Norfolk Southern a safer railroad,” Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said in a televised interview with CNBC. “We’re very focused on science-based solutions.”

Shaw said that the company spends over $1 billion annually on maintenance and technology.

Meanwhile, the Association of American Railroads, the industry’s top lobbying group, is already pushing back on Buttigieg’s proposals, noting that railroads’ hazmat accident rate has decreased 55 percent over the last decade.

“The NTSB’s independent investigators continue their work to identify the accident’s root cause and contributing factors,” Association of American Railroads CEO Ian Jefferies said in a statement. “That investigation must continue unimpeded by politics and speculation so NTSB’s findings can guide what additional measures may have prevented this accident.”

Source: TEST FEED1